Government Technology - July 2008 - (Page 20)

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked by people’s desks of all ages and seen Minesweeper up.” Dustin Lanier, director, Texas Council on Competitive Government Dustin Lanier said he believes Millennials are knowledgable of emerging technologies and are adept multi-taskers — an asset in the technology age. Clapper, who works as a computer information technologist, doesn’t think drastic changes will be noticeable for awhile, maybe not until the post-Millennial generation grows up. But Millennials are coming, and he even has a prediction in mind. “I think there’s going to be a lot of changes, especially to Web design and the integration of instant messaging into pretty much every platform,” Clapper said. He envisions an integrated instant to Web 2.0 and existing risks might be a better approach than leaving things to IT policy alone. Ross agrees that training all employees as security officers would also mitigate risk. He referred to this approach as “part of the most modern way of thinking about security.” Although the Symantec study indicates that Millennials use Web 2.0 applications frequently at work, time will tell if their activity causes rampant security breaches in co-workers. After all, young people don’t have a monopoly on being distracted in the office. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked by people’s desks of all ages and seen Minesweeper up,” he said. He thinks employers should embrace some Web 2.0 applications. Otherwise, Millennials might be discouraged from sticking around. According to Lanier, this younger work force comprises many people who think of themselves as free agents. Government should accommodate some of their habits in order to prevent them from quitting. And of course, no discussion of the Millennial work force would be complete without input from the Millennials themselves. James Clapper, 27, and Josh Bradley, 21, work for the Missouri state government. They have ideas on how their generation could change workplaces in the future. messaging solution that interfaces with various platforms and applications on and off the Web. Bradley doesn’t think Millennials pose more of an IT threat than other ages do, and Clapper said conscientious younger workers won’t exploit their Web 2.0 proficiency at the employer’s expense. government. CIOs will have to wait for horror stories — and success stories — of how their contemporaries deal with this situation and how prevalent the threat is. “This is an emerging area, so there’s not a big repository of success stories yet,” said Kapuria. He knows of organizations with strategies in place to harness the Millennial generation “I think there’s going to be a lot of changes, especially to Web design and the integration of instant messaging into pretty much every platform.” James Clapper, computer information technologist, Missouri Office of Administration Information Technology Services Division “As a state employee, we already rely on technology for communication,” said Bradley, a computer technologist trainee. “We rely on our e-mail rather than phones most of the time.” He predicts society will become continuously more dependent on technology. JULY_08 What can cautious CIOs do to encourage Millennials to be more security-oriented on the job? “The approach to leveraging the Millennials and mitigating these types of risks is teaching,” Kapuria said. Kapuria thinks coaching younger employees on the security environment as it relates and what they can do, and it has a lot to do with building an atmosphere of culture and education. “Logic is a big tool with this generation, and sharing why we have to do certain things is important,” Kapuria said. 20 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - July 2008

Government Technology - July 2008 Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions for ... Generation 2.0 at Work Dangerous Convenience Tainted Justice? Are You Ready? E-Discovery Basics Smart Docs Advanced Math Online Video Blues Spectrum Personal Computing Products signal:noise

Government Technology - July 2008

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